[NTLK] Einstein and newton-re roadmap ideas

[Eckhart Köppen]

On Sat, 24 Oct 2026 14:42:56 +0200, Matthias Melcher wrote:
> Windows support currently runs just fine, AFAIK. If we stick with 
> FLTK for Einstein, it "just works" under Windows. I rarely have to 
> write Windows specific code. WSL requires X11 and gives only limmited 
> access to the underlying Windows system, IIRC.

Yes, Windows should "just" work, but on the other hand, I'm short on 
Windows machines, and can't for example install Visual Studio on the 
most recent one for license reasons. For the use case of demonstrating 
the innards of NewtonOS, and doing very low level development requiring 
an emulator, people would have to make peace with Linux. For the rest, 
there's then newton-re.

> Please take a look at `newtc` and `VSNewt`. They are based on 
> newton-framework and implement DAP already. It doesn't matter much if 
> `newtc` uses newton-framework or newton-re.

Saw and admired :) That's the way to go. For the DAP, I was more 
thinking about having a better debug experience for NewtonOS itself, 
and being able to hook up an agent to a live running Newton.

> A bit of a longer answer. Apologies.

Most appreciated, no need to apologize!

> Newton is a
>  - Operating system
>  - Byte Code interpreter
>  - Database
>  - User Interface library for pen computing
... 
> 
> We don't have to rewrite the operating system. All that exists on all 
> our target machines. We just need to give NewtonScript access to it.

Great summary of what Newton is, and beyond the above, we can add 
whatever we want.

> My take would be to give a .pkg 
> enough to run completely on its own. If a user has multiple .pkg 
> files, they could communicate, but they can all run individually too.

That's an interesting perspective I hadn't though about, but of course, 
there is no need to confine a package to a Newton device, it can just 
run by itself.

> The Soups are great in a way, but also a security nightmare. Everyone 
> can read and write anything. Should every Newton app have its own set 
> of Soups, or should they share one single soup?

Soups mapped to Sqlite files?

> I think, SDL would be the perfect base. It supports graphics, audio, 
> pen input etc. on all machines that we could possibly target. It 
> supports multiple windows on desktop machines for dialog boxes, and 
> single windows on mobile devices, where NewtonOS provides the dialog 
> boxes. It's all there.

Agree, NewtonOS anyway did not have any window chrome, everything is 
rendered standalone.

Now what comes to the museum, what's your feel how to treat it? I would 
still have use for it, but should I venture out on my own? Would the 
simplification diverge too much from the spirit? I could see it 
continue either way. With LLMs now doing a lot of work, this looks like 
what I mentioned earlier, I can just build something for my own 
purposes, maybe not even share it. Still feels a bit sad. Continuing 
Einstein even in a simplified form on the other hand maybe gives it the 
attention and credit it deserves? But it will not be what it is today, 
a platform for daily use. That's for newton-re in the future.

Eckhart